'Train wreck ahead'

We are told that many doctors are either retiring from the profession or refusing Medicaid patients because of the low reimbursement or no reimbursement.

Having to deal with "Obamacare" [the Affordable Care Act] adds to the health-care dilemma. A system of impossible regulations doesn't help the situation. The medical communities are not "serfs."

Free people don't like what's happening to America today.

Socialism regardless of its disguise is a great danger to a free society. When a leader operates from a radical far-left agenda, there will be a train wreck ahead.

H.P. Tarpley, Pollock

'Curiouser' all the time

Fascinating how things work. A federal judge says Utah's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional as violating the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses. When the Bill of Rights was enacted, sodomy was illegal in every state and was a capital offense in at least one, Virginia. When the 14th Amendment was enacted, sodomy was illegal in every state.

The polls? When the people of California were permitted to voice their opinion in a secret ballot, not that it mattered, gay marriage went down in flames. When Alec Baldwin calls George Stark "a toxic little queen" who he is going to "[blank] up." he keeps his gig at Capital One and generates not a tenth of the feigned outrage that Duck Commander Phil Robertson did. (By the way, Phil, the same Bible you quote also says not to suffer witches to live.)

And, while vacationing in Hawaii, President Obama slams the GOP for going home for the holidays.

As Alice would say, it just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

Joseph Kutch, Pineville

'Mood of Louisiana' resonates

I found some interesting reading in your "Mood of Louisiana" series published over the holidays. As you noted, the survey on which the stories were based was not scientific. Still, the outcomes that were reported and the comments about them ring true.

We live in a caring state; we know that because we know what goes on in our communities. We help each other.

We care about our schools because we want our children and grandchildren to have a good start in life and, perhaps, a path to better life than those we lead ourselves. This is not just about money and material wealth; it's about having the time to do things for family, friends and community, however you define them.

Feelings often say much more than statistics. I think there was a lot of truth in the "Mood of Louisiana" stories, and I found lots of reasons to be hopeful. Thanks for that, and Happy New Year to all.

Diane Sulpizio, Natchitoches

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